Rostin:The US government intentionally withheld syphilis treatments from black people in a long running medical experiment that lasted until 1972. It also interned Japanese people in WWII, continued screwing over Native Americans well into the 20th century, and is indirectly responsible for the deaths of an estimated 100,000 Iraqi citizens.

Why is it acceptable to wear a US flag but not a Confederate one? It's certainly not because the US has been a great respecter of the rights of minorities. The only reason I can think of is that the CSA lost.

You shouldn't even have to reach the "slavery" element, since that just opens the door to the argument that there was more to southern culture than slavery, which is of course true. The fact that it is the flag of a treasonous, secessionist armed insurrection should be enough to condemn it.

So all armed insurrections are de facto treasonous and worthy of condemnation? Feel free to tell the Egytians that. The US was designed with the intent that if the government was deemed too oppressive the people should revolt. You may not like the reasons that lead to the South feeling their interests were not being upheld by the federal government, but the conclusion of this war is that a state has no right to secede. If tomorrow slavery and genocide were legalized by the federal government your state would be legally in the wrong for trying to secede in response.

As a 100% pure northerner, who cares if a southerner flys the Confederate navel ensign? The war was 150 years ago, and just as those flying the flag should "get over it", so should some of those in this thread that wail of treachery.

It's hard to be offended by something that is being buried in history.

Not a Trace Adkins (or commercial country music in general) fan, I'm not from the south, nor do I live there... but reaction to this seems ridiculous, IMO. To your average non-racist southerner, it's just a symbol of redneck "yee-haw", and nothing more. Yeah, it's dumb and he should have known some people would get all wound up over it, but damn...

I don't remember the moral outrage over the Dukes Of Hazzard, a show where the central character was a car with a giant confederate flag on the roof. But that was 30 years ago, and people were generally less nuts then.

And for the record, anyone who is offended by a Confederate Battle Flag

Wrong. That's NOT a "Battle Flag". It's the Confederate NAVY Jack. The Army of Northern Virginia battle flag was usually square, of various sizes for the different branches of the service: 52 inches square for the infantry, 38 inches for the artillery, and 32 inches for the cavalry. It was used in battle beginning in December 1861 until the fall of the Confederacy. The blue color on the saltire in the battle flag was navy blue, as opposed to the much lighter blue of the Naval Jack. The flag's stars represented the number of states in the Confederacy. The distance between the stars decreased as the number of states increased, reaching thirteen when the secessionist factions of Kentucky and Missouri joined in late 1861. At the First Battle of Manassas, the similarity between the Stars and Bars and the Stars and Stripes caused confusion and military problems. Thus was born the "Battle Flag". If people are going to rail against "Southern Heritage" or try to defend it, knowing something about it would help you a great deal. History books are a lot of fun...IF YOU BOTHER TO READ THE DAMN THINGS!

You shouldn't even have to reach the "slavery" element, since that just opens the door to the argument that there was more to southern culture than slavery, which is of course true. The fact that it is the flag of a treasonous, secessionist armed insurrection should be enough to condemn it.

The Confederacy was just proof of how far Southerners would/will go in order to defend their urges to inflict inhumanity on other people.

If Lincoln had just let General Sherman go nuts and kept the Southern states out of the Union, everything South of Iowa would have become a wasteland where all the people there died out by 1930.

Then, we could have sent in intelligent, twang-free people from the North to repopulate the land and make it fruitful again.

Country music fans are probably the only segment of society that's brain-dead enough to believe this. I be they also think he lives in a double-wide and can't afford to get his pick-up truck fixed because he's so dad-gummed broke. Oh well, three shots of Cuervo down at the local honky-tonk this Saturday night will cure all of life's ills.

My favorite was when I was behind a pick up truck that had two big stickers in the rear cab windshield. One was an American flag that said something like Patriotism, and beside it was rebel flag. Farking idiot. It was central PA btw with PA plates.

Another fun story from the same area. I asked this uber christian (really nice guy) why he was wearing rebel flag belt buckle and he said it was because it is a symbol of rebellion. My response was "so is the American flag." The look on his face was a memorable mind=blown moment.

That one is fun insight into why some wear it. It's ridiculously stupid.

Proctor: All right, here's your last question. What was the cause ofthe Civil War?Apu: Actually, there were numerous causes. Aside from the obviousschism between the abolitionists and the anti-abolitionists,there were economic factors, both domestic and inter--Proctor: Wait, wait... just say slavery. Apu: Slavery it is, sir.

Country music fans are probably the only segment of society that's brain-dead enough to believe this. I be they also think he lives in a double-wide and can't afford to get his pick-up truck fixed because he's so dad-gummed broke. Oh well, three shots of Cuervo down at the local honky-tonk this Saturday night will cure all of life's ills.

As opposed to the thug envy of rappers? I think they have them country folks beat by a mile or 50 as brain dead people go.

Also, there's no moral high ground in this issue. Slavery is evil, yes. But before the civil war and the end of slavery we, as a nation, were well underway in genociding the Indians. A process that only excellerated after the war.

doubled99:To you, and many others, it is.To many in the south, it isn't.Everyone's opinion is equal.

They had an organized insurrectionist army, a minor navy, declared themselves an independent nation, drafted and ratified papers to that effect, adopted a recognized flag as a battle standard, and citizens under that standard continued to hold it long after their side of the war was lost and their attempt at secession was lost. That's not an opinion. That's not an "idea". That's a nationally recognized standard, enshrined in numerous officially recognized and ratified documents.

Revisionist histories can't sugar coat this one. It's a recognized symbol of treason and secession that lost. Some groups in the south still attempt to claim this flag, nation, and way of life today, but subtly change its meaning to try to justify the rebellion. It's a facade that breaks down under the smallest amount of scrutiny and questioning. It's no different than Nazi symbols in Germany today or Soviet symbols in eastern Europe. They still have well-understood meanings and histories, and no amount of cultural smoke screening can undo the historical facts of what they are and what they represent.

rufus-t-firefly:Joe Blowme: Other symbols of opression and slavery i know all of you who hate the rebel flag also hate, right?[static.flickr.com image 500x341][writetodie.files.wordpress.com image 300x300] [www.westernjournalism.com image 299x269] [skew.dailyskew.com image 500x400]